A bicker-free week and for once the international break brings an element of calm to the Fine City

For many they are nothing but a source of irritation, especially if your team has momentum, but given that inertia, even freefall, is more prevalent in the Fine City right now, this one has been alright. Almost enjoyable.

Certainly watching Scotland and the Republic of Ireland kick lumps out of each another in between occasionally kicking the ball was entertaining. I’m expecting something similar at Celtic Park tonight.

Even England’s second-half showing against Slovenia was acceptable, although after what had gone before – which in the words of Roy Hodgson was “a little bit sterile” (a little?) – it had to be an improvement.

But I suspect it was a weekend free of Yellow Army in-fighting, bitching and niggling that made really the difference. A Saturday night and Sunday free of potshots and vitriol. It was nice.

Because, regardless of where the fault lies, since the departure of Paul Lambert to pastures claret and blue we’ve done little but bicker.

The Chris Hughton era will, in the future, be memorable only for the division it caused among the yellow and green masses. The Neil Adams era flirted briefly with harmony before the downturn in fortunes re-opened the festering wounds. And here we are again.

Or am I just being overly sensitive? Is this how things are going to be? Have they always been like this? Have the mists of time clouded over division and vitriol of years gone by?

A lot of questions (sorry…) but I’m wondering if the Lambert years were just a glorious blip and, in fact, the Chase, Worthy and Hughton ‘campaigns’ were just the most high-profile of never-ending stream.

Certainly social media and the age of instant gratification has played its part. What was once a discussion in the pub can now be a worldwide debate in seconds. An opinion once shared with a couple of pals can now be relayed to thousands in the press of a key.

That the message can be spread quicker and wider is not in doubt – I can only imagine what social media would have done with the ‘Chase Out’ campaign – but as individuals, and as a canary nation, I’m not sure the same entrenched views were so prevalent back in the day.

Forgive the awful cliché, but football is of course a game of opinions – we have TV and radio stations that live off them – and debating the whos, whys and wherefores is all part of the fun. And that’s never changed.

Perhaps it’s purely down to expectation.

Three seasons in the Premier League clearly propelled the club forward in a way that surprised, thrilled and angered in equal measure – finances and esteem both benefiting – but as a result the bar was raised dangerously high.

Now, following relegation, we find ourselves back in an ever-growing group of Championship clubs who see the Premier League as their rightful place, but for whom it remains nothing more than a tantalising and lucrative dream.

That City have sampled that money pit so recently gives us a feeling of entitlement. Understandably so.

But it’s that which causes the blue touch paper to be lit with such regularity. Only Premier League mid-table mediocrity will suffice, at a minimum, and woe betide the club should it flirt with relegation. That’s how it feels.

And we’re all guilty of it, including us at MyFootballWriter.

That doesn’t mean of course we should accept what we’re being offered right now.

There is no question the travelling Yellow Army have been short changed on the last two away trips. No question at all. And there is no argument around this season representing City’s best chance of returning to the the Premier League.

As a result there is every reason to be concerned about the recent free-fall – and the decision-making that has led to the slide – but in the greater scheme of things, having scaled some commendable heights the club’s trajectory is heading us back towards being Championship wannabees.

The sad reality – certainly for clubs like Norwich – is that cyclical nature of football means a sustained period of highs are usually followed by some commensurate lows. Most clubs – the elite aside – are subject to them. It’s our turn. That’s how it feels anyway.

But that doesn’t mean we should just sit back and accept it.

All of which is no consolation for the Yellow Army, and with hostilities resuming on Saturday – Brighton being the visitors to Carrow Road – we can expect said blue touch paper to be not far away.

But if there is one thing that would help quell the current uprising it’s the appointment of an experienced coach – perhaps even one that knows the Colney ropes.

The notion that the club’s powers brokers are listening to the voice of the fans may just be enough, for the time being at least, to afford Neil Adams and David McNally some time.

An empty seat in the dugout and a defeat however would only add fuel to a flickering fire.

Let’s just hope the break will have recharged the batteries of managers, players and fans alike.

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Comments

Realistic points Gary, about where we sit in the scheme of things. I’ve always thought our natural place is top 6 in the 2nd tier. Sometimes we’ll be above that, sometimes below. In the last 10 years we’ve had plenty to thrill to, and plenty to get depressed over.

But if you look at our achievements over the past 40 years or so, size of City and fanbase, home and away crowds, size of stadium, financial firepower, even geograhpical location, I think top 6 in the Championship is realistic. Not that I don’t always want more of course…

We´re not a Premier League team in disguise
That fact some need to face and recognise,
A Premier League ´Club´, that we are, maybe
Just waiting for those times again to see,
The Lambert years were the undoubted high
And the exception not the rule, fear I,
Whether we can again reach to those heights
Is becoming less clear to all our sights,
The early Neil Adams momentum
Has slowed to stop, to leave us feeling numb,
A kick-start is a must and very soon
To once again have fans all in a swoon.

This is all very reminiscent of my early days as a supporter. A third placed finish and subsequent European adventure had raised the bar considerably, perhaps to the highest point it’s ever been. Then, suddenly, we were a division lower. Cue the entitlement that you now speak of, Gary. It surely is a shattering thing when you think your club has turned a corner, only to find that it’s actually performing a U-turn.

You mention the vitriol that would be heading the way of Robert Chase in today’s climate. I really do think it would be worse than anything McNally has had to endure. I remember the disbelief when, after talk of having a £6m war chest (and that was a lot of money then), we were unable to prise Dean Windass away from Hull City. A lot of fans might’ve questioned the interest, thinking we could do better, but to be told we couldn’t stretch the funds to secure him was like having the plug well and truly pulled. The whole debacle precipitated the departure of a very popular Martin O’Neill and the promotion-at-first time-of-asking wheels were soon to be seen rolling lugubriously down a distant road.

There’s no reason to assume the same will happen this time round, but the sense of mild(?) panic is understandable for anyone who remembers the 95-96 season and indeed anyone who has seen the many teams who have tried fail to bounce straight back after relegation.

Your hope that the fans’ batteries will have been recharged (assuming you mean in a positive way) by the international break seems optimistic, if I may say so. I fear the knives may have been sharpened. The expectation at Carrow Road this Saturday will be palpable, and if positive signs (at the very least) are not forthcoming early on I worry that the crowd will get on the team’s back, which never helps.

Calm before the storm Gary? It’s an uneasy calm I would say with our season balanced at a very fine tipping point.
Like Dan R., top 6 would be a realistic goal this season under someone who has never managed before – with the added caveat of finishing above McCarthy’s Tractor boys as a ‘must do’.
The Adams-bashers are prepared to see us fail just to see the object of their angst crash and burn but most surely hope that he can turn round the slide over the next few games and get us back on track by year end.

Not my finest blog and having re-read it again I still failed to make the point I was trying to, which was that in the cyclical world of football we are of an ilk where ‘yoyo’ could become our middle name.

We should, of course, continue to aim for the stars, but the cruel reality is continued mid-table mediocrity in the Prem is a very big ask.

Ben – re ‘recharged batteries’: Was written in hope rather than expectation. I suspect we’re only an early goal from Brighton away from a lot of the pent up venom spilling over.

‘Leni’ – Yep, the ‘stock’ Yellow Army image I’m afraid. That Copyright bloke is a bugger when it comes to updating the image library, but I’ll do my best 😉

No worries Gary(6) – it’s the photo which just keeps on giving! I was struck by why anyone would choose that type of hat to go to a football match in. Archaelogocal adventures..yes, football..surely not?

If you study it closely (which sadly I have), the full range of human emotion is on display, from unbridled joy through to completely passive (person in the shades with the long hair (top-middle) who clearly has something more important to do than cheer a goal).

I’m pleased – and I confess a bit surprised – at the moderate tone of responses to you. When people like Mick D and myself put our heads above the parapet last year and mentioned Norwich’s ‘natural place’, we were accused of all kinds of treachery, usually involving lack of ambition and pandering to an aimless board.

For what it’s worth, I think City’s natural role is to yo-yo between the top two divisions – so I’m clearly more ‘ambitious’ than some.

Like you, I’ve found myself wondering ‘is it just me…?’ I used to think Norwich fans were more measured and less fickle than others; now it seems to me we’re no better than the rest. But maybe it’s just me…

Personally, I think a lot of the frustration this season is based on what happened last season. I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that we wasted a glorious opportunity to establish ourselves as a Premier League club and, thanks to a lot of poor management, we now find ourselves back where a lot of people think we belong.
Well, I don’t buy that.
Look at some of the stuff being served up in the Premier League. Burnley, Sunderland, QPR and others. Why should we not aim to be better than them?
And I also don’t buy that the Lambert years were a “blip”. We had a plan and a philosophy with him in charge, we ruffled feathers, played good football and won games we shouldn’t have. We should aim to get that back again. Now it seems a lot of us are happy to just slip back into the Little Old Norwich syndrome.
I like NA and I hope he succeeds, but he’s no PL. I know I should have got over him leaving by now but it hasn’t worked for either party. I’d have him back tomorrow.

Derek P (9): good to aim high. Only problem with your argument is that Burnley and QPR will be relegated this year, as will Sunderland if they have too many of the weak performances you’re no doubt thinking about. We were often ‘better than that’ last year, but not often enough; with the resources at our disposal, it’s a big challenge to be consistently good enough to survive and get established in the Prem. We over-achieved, big time, in our first two Premiership years.

It’s also interesting that since reaching the top flight in 1972 we have spent more time in the top tier than not in it. Not a lot more, I’ll admit. But I do think it shows that saying we are a second tier team is suggesting we lower our standards, our average. Personally I’m not okay with that.

Stewart Lewis (10) If we had a half decent Manager last season, we would have stayed up. This would have been season 4 in the top flight. The teams coming up would have been no threat and we could easily be looking forward to season 5. And you say you aspire to be a yo yo club. We didn’t over achieve in our first 2 years, we seriously underachieved last time.

Derek P: I never have, or will, aspire to be a yo-yo club. If you look at resources (by any definition) that’s what we’d be expected to be. I want us to be better than that.

Sorry if I was unclear. Should have said that my analysis is more positive than those who say our natural place is in the Championship.

The point about resources is that, for all three years of our recent Premiership tenure, we had a low-budget squad – certainly in the bottom three. In that context the surprise is that we did so well for two of those years (one under Lambert, one under Hughton), rather than that we went down last year. If you’re short of resources you have to get everything right; we did that for while, but certainly our striker signings last year weren’t right.

Agree that we got some things wrong last year, but can’t agree with the view summarised in your last sentence. Cheers

Dave B (14): Interesting point. I’d never thought of ‘overachieve’ as a negative; like you, I’d hate and avoid it if I did. For safety, maybe we should all avoid it.

The underlying point is important, though. There’s a group which does an analysis of the Premiership each season, including each club’s finishing position in relation to their playing resources/wage bill. In the first two seasons of our recent Prem stay (2011-12, 2012-13), most clubs’ finishing position closely matched their position in the resources/wages table. There were four exceptions, two clubs whose league position was much worse than their resources suggested and two whose position was much better. The poor achievers were QPR and Villa. The positive achievers were Everton (under David Moyes, of course) and Norwich (under Lambert then Hughton).

Dave: I suspect you’ll say this isn’t the be-all-and-end-all, and I agree with you. But surely it does matter, and should play some part in our evaluation of our club’s performance.

It also helps to explain the sometimes puzzling mismatch between our feelings about NCFC and those of outside observers.

Dave B (14). Your last line says it all for me. I don’t care what stats say about where we “should” be, I want us to be the best we can possibly be.
I happen to believe that NA can do the job but he needs to learn quickly and currently, things are not working. I want to give him every opportunity, however, last season’s mistakes must not be repeated and, if the Board feels, at any time, that Neil is failing, action must be taken much quicker this time.

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